JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER.
1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
LUKE 21:28-29
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
Air force hits Hamas camp in Gaza after rocket fire-IAF response comes after rocket from Gaza hits open field in south; no injuries reported-By TOI staff-JAN 2,18
The Israeli Air Force hit a Hamas camp in the southern Gaza Strip early Tuesday in response to a rocket fired at Israel hours before, the army said.The army said it targeted a Hamas facility because Israel holds Hamas responsible for all rocket fire and violence emanating from the coastal enclave. There were no immediate reports of casualties in Gaza.Late Monday, terrorists in the Gaza Strip launched a rocket at Israel that hit an open field in the Eshkol region, Israeli officials said.There were no reports of injuries or damage caused by the rocket.Police said the projectile was found in the fields of one of the communities in the area, southeast of Gaza, though they would not specify which one, lest it help terrorist groups hone their accuracy for future attacks.Warning sirens were not triggered by the launch, apparently because the rocket was heading toward an unpopulated area.Police sappers were called to the scene to remove the rocket.There were earlier reports of a rocket fired from Gaza that landed inside the Strip. It was not immediately clear if it was the same launch or another one.There were also reports of rocket launches on Sunday that similarly fell short, an indication that they were done by smaller terrorist groups, as opposed to the larger ones that have access to better munitions.On Friday, terrorists in Gaza fired three mortar shells at southern Israel, apparently in an attempt to interrupt a ceremony for a fallen IDF soldiers whose remains are being held by Hamas in the coastal enclave.Two of them were shot down by the Iron Dome missile defense system, while the third struck an Israeli community on the border, causing light damage to a building.The recent attacks come two weeks after a period of near-daily attacks earlier in December. The past month has seen the largest incidence of rocket fire from the Strip since the 2014 Israel-Hamas war.Since US President Donald Trump’s recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on December 6, dozens of rockets and mortar shells have been fired at Israel by Gazan terrorist groups.According to Israeli assessments, the rockets are not being launched by Hamas, but by other terrorist organizations in the Strip. Hamas has apparently been either unwilling or unable to clamp down on those groups.On December 19, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said he believed that the rocket fire by Gaza-based terrorist groups was over, referring to the attacks as the “price” Israel had to pay for Trump’s declaration“The ‘drizzle'” — the slang term for sporadic rocket attacks — “is not continuing. We’ve already had one day of total quiet,” Liberman said, following a meeting with the heads of mayors and regional council leaders from the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip.Protesting Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital led terror group Hamas, which runs Gaza and seeks Israel’s destruction, to call for a new intifada and vow to liberate Jerusalem.
In late night vote, Knesset passes law to hinder East Jerusalem withdrawal-Law requires special two-thirds Knesset support to approve relinquishing any portion of the city to a foreign power under any future peace deal-By TOI staff-JAN 2,18
Lawmakers approved a bill in the early hours Tuesday that requires a special two-thirds majority vote in the Knesset to relinquish any part of Jerusalem to the Palestinians under a future peace accord.The bill passed its second and third readings in a late night session by a majority of 64 in favor, 51 against, and one abstention.The bill, which was proposed by Jewish Home MK Shuli Moalem-Refaeli and had the coalition backing, was designed to make it much harder to divide the city that Israel claims as its undivided capital. The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as a capital of a future state.The bill, an amendment to the Basic Law on Jerusalem, makes it harder for any government to divide the city by requiring 80 of the 120 MKs to support relinquishing any part of Jerusalem.Before, the Jerusalem Law, passed in 1980 and amended in 2000, stated: “No authority that is stipulated in the law of the State of Israel or of the Jerusalem Municipality may be transferred either permanently or for an allotted period of time to a foreign body, whether political, governmental or to any other similar type of foreign body.”With no provision in the Basic Law specifying how it can be amended, it was possible to overturn it with a simple majority.The bill was originally proposed in the summer but did not make it through the procedural before the fall recess.“The goal of the bill is to prevent concessions as part of diplomatic deals,” said Moalem-Refaeli at the time. “Jerusalem will never be on the negotiating table.“The State of Israel will not allow for the establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem. Get it into your heads that Jerusalem was the capital of the Jewish people and will remain the capital of the Jewish people for all eternity,” she said.Jerusalem has been in the spotlight in recent weeks since US President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and said he would move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.In an address from the White House earlier this month, Trump defied worldwide warnings and insisted that after repeated failures to achieve peace a new approach was long overdue, describing his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the seat of Israel’s government as merely based on reality.The move was hailed by Prime Minister Netanyahu and by leaders across much of the Israeli political spectrum. Trump stressed that he was not specifying the boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in the city, and called for no change in the status quo at the city’s holy sites.The move sparked protests across the Arab and Muslim world and violent protests by the Palestinians, including a cal for a new intifada from the Hamas terror group.Opposition lawmaker Nahman Shai (Zionist Union) criticized the new law, saying it could spark further unrest.“We don’t need new laws on Jerusalem now, we have already seen what happens on the Temple Mount,” he said referring to widespread violence that erupted when Israel tried to impose new security procedures in the holy site after Israeli Arabs emerged from the Temple Mount compound and shot dead two Israeli policemen last summer.“When Jerusalem burns, everything burns,” Shai said.In May, hours before Trump arrived in Israel during his first major foray abroad as president, Netanyahu declared that Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem’s holy sites was not up for negotiation and said the city will always be Israel’s capital.Trump has expressed his desire to reach a Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement, which he has described as the “ultimate deal.”In recent months the United Nations cultural body UNESCO has passed a series of resolutions that diminish or deny the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and refer to Israel as an occupying power.Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1980, but the move has not been recognized internationally and most countries refuse to recognize any part of the city as Israel’s capital, saying it was an issue that will need to be decided in negotiations with the Palestinians.
2,700-year-old seal impression cements existence of biblical Jerusalem governor-Found in ongoing Western Wall plaza excavations, the minuscule clay piece is inscribed in ancient Hebrew script, 'Belonging to the governor of the city'-By Amanda Borschel-Dan-TOI-2 January 2018
Past and present collided last week when an extremely rare seal impression discovered in Jerusalem’s Western Wall plaza and bearing the inscription “Belonging to the governor of the city” was presented to Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat.According to site excavator Dr. Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah, “This is the first time that such an impression was found in an authorized excavation. It supports the biblical rendering of the existence of a governor of the city in Jerusalem 2,700 years ago.”At the presentation, Barkat said, “It is very overwhelming to receive greetings from First Temple-period Jerusalem. This shows that already 2,700 years ago, Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, was a strong and central city.”The minuscule clay seal impression, or docket, was found while researchers were examining the dust from a First Temple structure 100 meters northwest of the Western Wall at a site the Israel Antiquity Authorities has been excavating since 2005. The excavations have offered up insights into Jerusalem’s Second Temple and Roman periods, as well as a massive Iron Age four-room building where an eclectic collection of six other seals were uncovered, whose origins point to a thriving cosmopolitan Iron Age center or settlement.“The seal impression had been attached to an important transport and served as some sort of logo, or as a tiny souvenir, which was sent on behalf of the governor of the city,” said Weksler-Bdolah in an IAA release.The site, which faces the Western Wall plaza, was once earmarked as the future home of a Western Wall Heritage Foundation’s Beit HaLiba until Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspended the controversial museum “over security concerns” in 2015. However, in light of the “outstanding significance” of the finds at the excavation site, according to Dr. Yuval Baruch, archaeologist of the Jerusalem District in the IAA, a decision was made”to conserve the First Temple-period building exposed in the Western Wall plaza excavations and open it to visitors.”The clay impression was discovered in dust after Israel Antiquity Authority conservationists scratched at the surface of the First Temple period building’s walls to inject preservation materials. The dust that fell from between the ancient stones was taken to the IAA labs for wet sifting.At the IAA labs in Jerusalem’s Har Hotzvim technology park, Shimon Cohen spotted the seal impression about a year ago. The small (13 x 15 mm and 2–3 mm thick) fired lump of clay bears an image and inscription. On the upper portion of the impression, two figures wearing striped garments face each other. Between them is what could be a moon, according to excavation head Weksler-Bdolah.Over the past year, the impression was studied by Hebrew University Prof. Tallay Ornan and Tel Aviv University Prof. Benjamin Sass. According to their analysis, “above a double line are two standing men, facing each other in a mirror-like manner. Their heads are depicted as large dots, lacking any details. The hands facing outward are dropped down, and the hands facing inward are raised. Each of the figures is wearing a striped, knee-length garment.”The bottom section reads, in early Hebrew script: “Belonging to the governor [sar] of the city.” Weksler-Bdolah explains that the governor most likely functioned much like today’s mayor. The role is referenced in the Hebrew Bible: in 2 Kings, Joshua is listed as the governor of the city in the days of Hezekiah, and in 2 Chronicles, Maaseiah is noted as governor of the city in the days of Josiah.“The Bible mentions two governors of Jerusalem, and this finding thus reveals that such a position was actually held by someone in the city some 2700 years ago, said Weksler-Bdolah.The initial discovery of the First Temple structure came as a surprise to Weksler-Bdolah, who until then had been digging up Second Temple and Roman-era finds. However, as the team excavated more north, after a longstanding police building was removed, “All of a sudden we saw that there was no more bedrock. It disappeared.” In a 2010 interview, she described continuing the excavation and discovering that “the minute we took away the Early Islamic eighth-century plaster installations [from under the police building]… immediately, in 20 centimeters — ‘one basket of dirt’ archaeologically speaking — we went from the eighth-century A.D. to the eighth century B.C.”Her team discovered a four-room structure facing the Temple Mount, constructed on the slopes of the upper hill, which according to the remains of the building and its floors, was dated to the seventh century BCE.According to the 2010 article, the structure, which was ruined in a collapse, is “typical of the buildings of the Israelites and also in Judea. There was one broad room and three elongated rooms perpendicular to it. The one broad room is divided with walls into three sections, three smaller room.”Weksler-Bdolah believes that due to its location and the eclectic group of artifacts found there — from Egypt and Assyria — the building “probably served as an administration center. The people who gave orders may have had to sign documents here. It may also have been a place for the rich, the more important people, because the location is really important.”The recent additional find is more evidence for this hypothesis. “The finding of the impression with this high-rank title, in addition to the large assemblage of actual seals found in the building in the past, supports the assumption that this area, located on the western slopes of the western hill of ancient Jerusalem, some 100 meters west of the Temple Mount, was inhabited by highly ranked officials during the First Temple period,” said Weksler-Bdolah this week.The seal impression was presented to Mayor Barkat during a visit to Davidson’s Center, near the Western Wall, last week. After the completion of the scientific research, the impression will be on temporary exhibit in the mayor’s office.“Jerusalem is one of the most ancient capitals of the world, continually populated by the Jewish people for more than 3,000 years. Today we have the privilege to encounter another one of the long chain of persons and leaders that built and developed the city. We are grateful to be living in a city with such a magnificent past, and are obligated to ensure its strength for generations to come, as we daily do,” said Barkat.
You taught me how to love,’ tearful MK Yehudah Glick says at wife’s funeral-Yaffa Glick dies six months after suffering severe stroke, is buried in Jerusalem, survived by husband and 8 children-By TOI staff -2 January 2018
At the funeral for his wife Yaffa, Likud MK Yehudah Glick eulogized her, saying that she had “taught him how to love.”Yaffa Glick, who died on Monday, had been in a coma for six months after suffering a severe stroke. She was 51.“Everything I have is yours,” the lawmaker said through his tears during the afternoon ceremony at Jerusalem’s Har Hamenuhot cemetery.He said that she had taught him to be sincere when he said “thank you,” by thinking about what he was grateful for. “You taught me not to say ‘how are you’ without actually caring about the person,” he said. She had also “taught him how to love,” Glick said.“It was not by chance that all the ‘invisible’ people were attracted to you,” he continued. “We would go to a wedding, suddenly you would disappear and I would eventually find you sitting with someone on the side. I would say, ‘Do you know her?’ ‘No, but I saw she was alone, and that something weighed heavily on her, so I came over to speak with her.'”He spoke of the sense of gratitude the two of them had, which led them to adopt two children in addition to their own six.Yaffa Glick suffered a severe stroke on June 23, shortly before Shabbat began. “On Friday when the stroke happened everyone knew straight away because they didn’t get their usual WhatsApp ‘Shabbat Shalom’ from you,” Glick said in his eulogy.He thanked all those who attended the funeral, “from left and right, Jews and Arabs, from inside the party and outside the party.”Earlier, Glick announced his wife’s death on Facebook, sharing photos of “the love of my life.”Yehuda Glick was almost killed in a 2014 assassination attempt due to his advocacy for Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount site. His wife had been hospitalized in the same ward where he was treated. After her stroke six months ago the lawmaker tweeted that following his shooting, “she asked for prayers for me. Now, after a severe stroke, she needs your prayers.” He also said that he had prayed for her recovery during a visit to the Temple Mount in August, despite a ban on Jewish worship at the holy site.The timing of Monday’s funeral caused a mini-crisis in the government, when the opposition joined the coalition Yisrael Beytenu party in refusing to have one lawmaker bow out of an upcoming vote on a bill to shutter mini-markets on Shabbat, saying they would not offset Glick’s absence even though such a move is a customary gesture of courtesy in such cases.Hours before his wife’s funeral, Glick took to Twitter to implore lawmakers not to turn his bereavement into a political battle.“I beg of you,” he wrote, “that my dear wife’s funeral should not become the subject of a fight. Please increase love and positive energy.”The death of Yaffa Glick was met with an outpouring of condolences from across the political spectrum.“My condolences to MK Yehudah Glick on the death of his wife, Yaffa,” tweeted President Reuven Rivlin. “Together with all of the people of Israel, I followed her sad story and was impressed by the family’s devotion.”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a statement, said he had spoken with Glick to convey his condolences.“Together with all of Israel, we mourn her death and send strength to him and his family in their time of deep sorrow,” he said.Likud MK Amir Ohana, who served as a volunteer bodyguard for Glick in the hospital during his recovery (and before both had entered Knesset) also paid tribute to Yaffa Glick.“I got to know her during the difficult times, after the failed assassination attempt against Yehudah,” wrote Ohana on Twitter. “‘A soul woven with threads of steel and silk,’ Jabotinsky wrote of women, a description tailor-made for Yaffi.”
National task force unveiled to deal with drone dangers-With rise in incidents involving remote-controlled aircraft, better coordination needed between ministries and security agencies, MKs hear-By Sue Surkes-TOI-2 January 2018
A national task force slated to deal with safety and security issues connected to drones was unveiled Monday at a meeting of the Knesset’s State Control Committee. The new body, which will have its own dedicated budget, will be led by the air force, the committee heard.It has been given six months to determine operating procedures, after which it will report back to the committee on whether or not to push for drone regulation.Committee chair MK Shelly Yachimovich (Zionist Union), however, said the timescale was “totally unreasonable,” given the imminent threat of a disaster involving a drone.“It’s totally unreasonable in my opinion that after two and a half years of work by the National Security Council, we’re now told that that in another six months a decision will be made whether to regulate or not,” she said.“Have you taken into account that an attack is likely to happen during that period? Why are you so slow? Hitting out at what she called the “formalistic answers” it has received, she said the committee would revisit the issue in less than six months.Yesh Atid lawmaker Haim Jelin said the threat from drones was equivalent to that posed by the cross-border attack tunnels dug by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.The committee debate, some of which was held behind closed doors for security reasons, followed the publication in November of a scathing report by the state comptroller, which accused both security forces and regulators of failing to confront the threats posed to public safety by drones, some 20,000 of which are already owned by Israelis for a variety of purposes.Brig. Gen. Yossi Beinhoren (res.), director of the security services’ control division, told the committee that as recently as December 13, Ben Gurion International Airport had to shut down for 15 minutes because a drone had entered its flight space. In May, a drone entered the landing area at the Sde Dov airport in Tel Aviv, endangering a plane, and in January 2016, a helicopter passed just 50 meters away from a drone on the Herzliya beach in central Israel.While just one incident of danger to safety from a drone was recorded in 2014, there were 24 in 2016. Figures for 2017 had not yet been released.Eytan Ben-David, deputy head of the National Security Council, the main coordinating body for the various security organizations, said that two and a half years of work had yielded a “common language” between all those involved and a clear division of responsibility between the army and the police.Brig Gen. Eden Atias, director general of Parazero, a company dealing in drone safety, said Israel should follow the American lead in having drones registered at the point of purchase and equipped with technological components that would allow for them to be identified in the air. The Pentagon recently launched a $700 million program to deal with the threat from UAVs, the committee heard from another drone businessman, Guy Charney, of Atlas Dynamics.The state comptroller’s report said that while the Israel Defense Forces was responsible for countering drones flown by terrorist groups, it was not clear which security service was responsible for drones flown by Israelis within Israel.The army saw it as the police’s domain, as it was a civilian matter, while the police saw it as the army’s, since it was responsible for securing the country’s airspace, it said.The report also said that because drones flown for noncommercial purposes were not required to register, there was no information on some 98.6 percent of the drones estimated to be in Israeli hands.
Trump threatens to cut Pakistan aid over ‘deceit’ in terror fight-In first tweet of the New Year, US president says Islamabad provides 'safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan'-By AFP-TOI-JAN 2,18
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump lashed out at Pakistan on Monday in his first tweet of 2018, threatening to cut off aid over what he said were its “lies and deceit” in offering “safe haven to terrorists.”The tweet brought a quick and pointed rejoinder from Pakistan, which said it had done much for the United States, helping it to “decimate” Al-Qaeda, while getting only “invective & mistrust” in return.US-Pakistani ties, long contentious, have taken a nosedive under Trump, who in August declared that “Pakistan often gives safe haven to agents of chaos, violence and terror.”“The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools,” Trump said in an early-morning tweet.“They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!”The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2018-The Trump administration told Congress in August it was weighing whether to withhold $255 million in earmarked aid to Islamabad over its failure to crack down more effectively on terror groups in Pakistan.-Haqqani network-Last month, Trump hinted that he could cut off the aid.“We make massive payments every year to Pakistan. They have to help,” he said in unveiling his national security strategy.And in late December, Vice President Mike Pence told American troops during a visit to Afghanistan, “President Trump has put Pakistan on notice.”Of foremost concern is Islamabad’s attitude toward the powerful Haqqani network, accused of some of the most lethal attacks on US forces in Afghanistan and dubbed by America’s former top military officer Mike Mullen as a “veritable arm” of Pakistani intelligence.The group was responsible for kidnapping a Canadian-American couple and holding them from 2012 to 2017, when Pakistani forces secured their release in what they said was as a rescue operation but some US officials reportedly described as a “negotiated handover.”Trump hailed their return as a clear sign of progress, but his attitude has since hardened.Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif responded angrily to Trump’s tweet, telling Geo television in an Urdu-language interview: “The United States should hold its own people accountable for its failures in Afghanistan.”He said all funds from the US had been “properly audited” and that “services (were) rendered.”And Defense Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan tweeted that Pakistan “as anti-terror ally has given free to US: land & air communication, military bases & intel cooperation that decimated Al-Qaeda over last 16yrs, but they have given us nothing but invective & mistrust.”-Agents of chaos-Islamabad has repeatedly denied the accusations of turning a blind eye to militancy, lambasting the United States for ignoring the thousands who have been killed on its soil and the billions spent fighting extremists.Lisa Curtis, who is the director for South and Central Asia on Trump’s National Security Council, co-authored an article with former Pakistani ambassador Husain Haqqani last year which said that the “activities and operations of diverse terror groups on and from Pakistani soil, and the government’s failure to rein them in, threaten vital US national security interests in the region.”They added that “Pakistani authorities –- specifically the country’s military leaders, who control its foreign and security policies –- need to take a comprehensive approach to shutting down all Islamist militant groups that operate from Pakistani territory, not just those that attack the Pakistani state.”Trump first signaled that the US was reassessing its fractious relations with Pakistan in August, when he accused Islamabad of harboring “agents of chaos.”The remarks triggered a series of high-level diplomatic meetings in the US and Pakistan, but Islamabad has given few signs of concessions.After the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States, Washington forged a strategic alliance with Islamabad to help in its fight against extremists.But US leaders have often complained that Pakistan, which once supported the Taliban, has done too little to help.
Tunisian activists damage Holocaust display, calling it Zionist ‘propaganda’-Demonstrators tear down posters for National Library exhibition, saying the real genocide is happening to Palestinians-By TOI staff-2 January 2018
A Holocaust exhibition at the National Library in Tunis met with fierce opposition, with demonstrators tearing down posters and condemning what they called “propaganda” for the “decades-old myth about a genocide of the Jewish people.”In a video published by Meem Magazine on December 15, shortly after US President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, activists could be seen slamming the attempt to educate their “little children to get to know the history of the Jews,” according to a translation of the video published Monday by the Middle East Media Research Institute.The exhibition, which was supported by the Holocaust Museum in Washington, UNESCO, the United Nations and the German Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, was the initiative of Tunisian historian Habib Kazdaghli.“This is a historical documentary exhibition which exposes and denounces Nazi propaganda,” he said. “The purpose of this exhibition is to make our children love [history]. I’m a historian, but my children don’t like history.”The video showed dozens of people chanting, “Free, free Palestine. Out with the Zionists.” They then went on to remove posters about the exhibition.Hamida Bessaad, a researcher at the National Library, explained that the protesters opposed the exhibition because Kazdaghli “Wants our little children to get to know the history of the Jews, and learn about the Holocaust.”She claimed that the Holocaust was Jewish propaganda, and it was the Palestinians who were truly suffering a Holocaust.“He is upset that Tunisian children don’t know about the Holocaust of the Jews, but he is not upset that the children of Palestinian have been going through a Holocaust since 1948 and to this day,” she said. “The employees, intellectuals, readers and researchers of the National Library are all opposed to normalization (of relations with Israel) and to propaganda for the Jews.”Kawthar Chebbi, a civil society activist, called the Holocaust “lies and myths.”“Our youth are being brainwashed with empty lies and myths,” she said. “This decades-old myth about a genocide of the Jewish people by the Nazi regime… This is a lie to promote the Zionist entity and the “Israeli state.”Omar Al-Majri, a political activist, said, “The Holocaust was perpetrated by the Zionist movement in collaboration with the Nazis in order to transfer the Jews to Palestine. This is a historical truth that Habib Kazdaghli likes to ignore.”Tunisia was one of three north African countries that were part of Vichy France, where Nazis imposed anti-Jewish legislation. The Germans occupied Tunisia for six months, from November, 1942 through May, 1943. Thousands of the country’s 10,000 Jews were rounded up and sent to forced labor camps, where 265 of them died. Allied forces captured Tunisia on May 6, 1943, preventing mass deportations of the nations Jews to concentration camps in Europe.
Don't extinguish migrants' hopes, Pope says on World Day of Peace-[Reuters]-YAHOONEWS-January 2, 2018
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis described migrants and refugees as the world's "weakest and most needy" on Monday, using his traditional New Year's address to "give voice" to people he has urged leaders to do more to help.Francis reminded some 40,000 people who gathered in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican that he had chosen the plight of migrants and refugees as the theme for the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Peace, which is celebrated every January 1."For this peace, to which everyone has a right, many of them are willing to risk their lives in a journey which is often long and dangerous, they are willing to face strain and suffering.""Please, let us not extinguish the hope in their hearts, let us not suffocate their hopes for peace!"Across the world, the mass movement of people has shot to the top of the political agenda, and Francis has made defending those who migrate a central theme of his papacy.During a trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh last year, he met Muslim refugees and called for decisive measures to solve the political problems that caused many to flee.He has also criticized President Donald Trump's stated intention to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico to keep out illegal immigrants.In a homily earlier on Monday, Francis said everyone should look after their soul by taking a moment of silence every day, "to keep our freedom from being corroded by the banality of consumerism, the blare of commercials, the stream of empty words and the overpowering waves of empty chatter and loud shouting".In a message released in November ahead of the World Day of Peace, Francis said politicians who stoke fear of migrants were sowing violence and racism. He acknowledged that the presence of immigrants can compound existing problems in a country, but appealed for practical ways to be found to welcome newcomers.On Monday, he said: "It is important that there is a commitment from everyone, from civil institutions, and those in education, welfare and church organizations, to ensure a peaceful future for refugees, migrants, everyone."(Reporting by Isla Binnie; editing by Jason Neely)
STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES
LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun,(HEATING UP-SOLAR ECLIPSES) and in the moon,(MAN ON MOON-LUNAR ECLIPSES) and in the stars;(ASTEROIDS ETC) and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear,(TORNADOES,HURRICANES,STORMS) and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth:(DESTRUCTION) for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.(FROM QUAKES,NUKES ETC)
Record-shattering cold reaches into Florida-[Reuters]-By Ian Simpson-YAHOONEWS-January 2, 2018
(Reuters) - Record-shattering arctic cold reached as far south as Florida on Monday with freeze warnings in place from Texas to the Atlantic Coast and the northeastern United States facing another cold wave at the end of the week, forecasters said.Temperatures were from 20 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (11 to 17 degrees Celsius) below normal across the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, with only southern Florida untouched by the arctic blast."That degree of cold will be with us until tomorrow," said Brian Hurley, a National Weather Service meteorologist at College Park, Maryland. "Tuesday morning, we're looking at temperatures with very high probability of record lows."Along Alabama's Gulf Coast, the temperature in the city of Mobile could hit a low of 16F (minus 9C) overnight. Stiff breezes were expected to create dangerously cold wind chills across southeastern Georgia and most of northeastern Florida, the weather service said."Everybody's bundling up right now," said Ray, an employee at Love's Travel Stop in Loxley, Alabama, who declined to give his last name.He said the winter temperatures were not unusual but the truck stop had prepared for the cold by putting additive in fuel to guarantee it would flow freely.The mass of frigid air pumped south by a dip in the jet stream sent temperatures plunging across the U.S. heartland. Omaha posted a low of minus 20F (minus 29C), breaking a 130-year-old record, and Aberdeen, South Dakota, shattered a record set in 1919 with a temperature of minus 32F (minus 36C).The cold will be unrelenting across the Middle Atlantic and northeastern United States, with up to two dozen low temperature records expected in those regions over the next day or two, Hurley said.Although the cold should ease across most of the United States after Tuesday, the northeastern quarter of the country will see a repeat of the current frigid temperatures from Thursday to Friday as another arctic blast hits the area.The private AccuWeather forecaster said the cold snap could combine with a storm brewing off the Bahamas to bring snow and high winds to much of the Eastern Seaboard as it heads north on Wednesday and Thursday.The only part of the United States spared the deep freeze is the Southwest, with above-normal temperatures and dry weather expected to continue there, the weather service said.(Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
North Korea's Kim 'open to dialogue' with South Korea, will only use nukes if threatened-[Reuters]-By Heekyong Yang and Josh Smith-YAHOONEWS-January 2, 2018
SEOUL (Reuters) - Kim Jong Un warned the United States on Monday he had a "nuclear button" on his desk ready for use if North Korea was threatened, but offered an olive branch to South Korea, saying he was "open to dialogue" with Seoul.After a year dominated by fiery rhetoric and escalating tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program, the North Korean leader used his televised New Year's Day speech to declare his country "a peace-loving and responsible nuclear power" and call for lower military tensions and improved ties with the South."When it comes to North-South relations, we should lower the military tensions on the Korean Peninsula to create a peaceful environment," Kim said. "Both the North and the South should make efforts."Kim said he would consider sending a delegation to the Winter Olympics Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in February."North Korea's participation in the Winter Games will be a good opportunity to showcase the national pride and we wish the Games will be a success. Officials from the two Koreas may urgently meet to discuss the possibility," Kim said.South Korea said it welcomed Kim's offer. But U.S.-based experts saw Kim's speech as a clear attempt to divide Seoul from its main ally, Washington, which has led an international campaign to pressure North Korea through sanctions to give up weapons programs aimed at developing nuclear missiles capable of hitting the United States."We have always stated our willingness to talk with North Korea anytime and anywhere if that would help restore inter-Korean relations and lead to peace on the Korean Peninsula," a spokesman for the South Korean presidency said.Lee Hee-beom, president of the Pyeongchang Organizing Committee, said it welcomed North Korean participation and would "discuss relevant matters with the South Korean government as well as the International Olympic Committee."South Korean President Moon Jae-in has said North Korea's participation would ensure the safety of the Olympics and proposed last month that Seoul and Washington postpone large military drills that the North denounces as a rehearsal for war until after the Games.Asked to comment on Kim's speech, U.S. President Donald Trump said: "We'll see, we'll see," as he walked into a New Year’s Eve celebration at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.-'POKES AT THE FISSURE'-The U.S. State Department did not respond to a requests for comment on Kim’s New Year’s address, but analysts said it was an attempt to weaken the U.S.-South Korean alliance."This speech pokes at the fissure that has lain below the surface in U.S.-South Korean relations, and seems designed to drive a wedge there," said Douglas Paal, a former senior U.S. diplomat who heads the Asia program at Washington’s Carnegie Endowment for International Peace."President Moon needs a successful Olympics and the U.S. drive to increase pressure fits poorly with the Southern agenda."Evans Revere, another former senior U.S. diplomat who took part in unofficial talks with North Korean officials last year, said Pyongyang would likely try to extract concessions as a “price” for Olympics participation."It’s hard to imagine Seoul falling for this," he said, adding that Seoul and Washington had so far stayed in synch in the pressure and isolation campaign.Revere said Kim’s speech contained the strongest defense yet of North Korea's status as a permanently nuclear-armed country."Implicit in Kim Jong Un’s speech is a willingness to engage with others, including the United States, on the basis of their acceptance of the 'reality' of North Korea’s permanent nuclear status. That’s not a basis on which the United States is prepared to engage," he said.Moon took office last May pledging to engage Pyongyang in dialogue. But North Korea snubbed his overtures, including an offer to hold inter-Korean military talks about ceasing hostile activities along the border, as it tested missiles at an unprecedented pace.Kim said that rather than encouraging U.S. measures that "threaten the security and peace of the Korean peninsula," Seoul should instead respond to overtures from the North, and "stop nuclear war exercises with foreign forces."-'REALITY, NOT A THREAT'-North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test in September in defiance of international sanctions, raising fears of a new conflict on the Korean peninsula.After North Korea tested its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in November, which it said was capable of delivering a warhead to anywhere in the United States, Kim declared his nuclear force complete.He continued that theme in his New Year's address, announcing that North Korea would focus in 2018 on "mass-producing nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles for operational deployment".That, Kim said, was "irreversible with any force", making it impossible for the United States to start a war against North Korea."The whole territory of the U.S. is within the range of our nuclear strike and a nuclear button is always on the desk of my office and this is just a reality, not a threat," he said, while emphasizing that the weapons would only be used if North Korea was threatened.Kim's customary New Year’s speech is closely watched for indications of the policy direction the unpredictable and reclusive leader is likely to pursue in the coming year.Daniel Russel, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia until last April and now at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said there was an argument to be made to encourage North Korea's Olympic participation but that it should not be taken too far."It’s perfectly legitimate to dial down some of the signaling and the rhetoric ... but not to load up their tray with concessions in advance. We should reward responsible behavior, but not try to bribe North Korea into behaving; that doesn’t work," he said.Nam Sung-wook, a North Korea expert at Korea University in Seoul said Kim was likely to tone down his weapons testing - at least ahead of the Olympics."What North Korea is most afraid of is being forgotten in the international arena," he said. "Without launching missiles and conducting a nuclear test, North Korea will be in the spotlight just by attending the Winter Olympics."Harry Kazianis, director of defense studies at Washington's conservative Center for the National Interest, said that if North Korea did participate in the Olympics, there could be a lull in tensions, but only a brief one."As we move into the spring, Pyongyang will once again test all different types of missiles and weapons," he said.(Additional reporting by Soyoung Kim in Seoul, David Brunnstrom and Yeganeh Torbati in Washington and Roberta Rampton in West Palm Beach, Fla; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Peter Cooney)
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
Air force hits Hamas camp in Gaza after rocket fire-IAF response comes after rocket from Gaza hits open field in south; no injuries reported-By TOI staff-JAN 2,18
The Israeli Air Force hit a Hamas camp in the southern Gaza Strip early Tuesday in response to a rocket fired at Israel hours before, the army said.The army said it targeted a Hamas facility because Israel holds Hamas responsible for all rocket fire and violence emanating from the coastal enclave. There were no immediate reports of casualties in Gaza.Late Monday, terrorists in the Gaza Strip launched a rocket at Israel that hit an open field in the Eshkol region, Israeli officials said.There were no reports of injuries or damage caused by the rocket.Police said the projectile was found in the fields of one of the communities in the area, southeast of Gaza, though they would not specify which one, lest it help terrorist groups hone their accuracy for future attacks.Warning sirens were not triggered by the launch, apparently because the rocket was heading toward an unpopulated area.Police sappers were called to the scene to remove the rocket.There were earlier reports of a rocket fired from Gaza that landed inside the Strip. It was not immediately clear if it was the same launch or another one.There were also reports of rocket launches on Sunday that similarly fell short, an indication that they were done by smaller terrorist groups, as opposed to the larger ones that have access to better munitions.On Friday, terrorists in Gaza fired three mortar shells at southern Israel, apparently in an attempt to interrupt a ceremony for a fallen IDF soldiers whose remains are being held by Hamas in the coastal enclave.Two of them were shot down by the Iron Dome missile defense system, while the third struck an Israeli community on the border, causing light damage to a building.The recent attacks come two weeks after a period of near-daily attacks earlier in December. The past month has seen the largest incidence of rocket fire from the Strip since the 2014 Israel-Hamas war.Since US President Donald Trump’s recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on December 6, dozens of rockets and mortar shells have been fired at Israel by Gazan terrorist groups.According to Israeli assessments, the rockets are not being launched by Hamas, but by other terrorist organizations in the Strip. Hamas has apparently been either unwilling or unable to clamp down on those groups.On December 19, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said he believed that the rocket fire by Gaza-based terrorist groups was over, referring to the attacks as the “price” Israel had to pay for Trump’s declaration“The ‘drizzle'” — the slang term for sporadic rocket attacks — “is not continuing. We’ve already had one day of total quiet,” Liberman said, following a meeting with the heads of mayors and regional council leaders from the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip.Protesting Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital led terror group Hamas, which runs Gaza and seeks Israel’s destruction, to call for a new intifada and vow to liberate Jerusalem.
In late night vote, Knesset passes law to hinder East Jerusalem withdrawal-Law requires special two-thirds Knesset support to approve relinquishing any portion of the city to a foreign power under any future peace deal-By TOI staff-JAN 2,18
Lawmakers approved a bill in the early hours Tuesday that requires a special two-thirds majority vote in the Knesset to relinquish any part of Jerusalem to the Palestinians under a future peace accord.The bill passed its second and third readings in a late night session by a majority of 64 in favor, 51 against, and one abstention.The bill, which was proposed by Jewish Home MK Shuli Moalem-Refaeli and had the coalition backing, was designed to make it much harder to divide the city that Israel claims as its undivided capital. The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as a capital of a future state.The bill, an amendment to the Basic Law on Jerusalem, makes it harder for any government to divide the city by requiring 80 of the 120 MKs to support relinquishing any part of Jerusalem.Before, the Jerusalem Law, passed in 1980 and amended in 2000, stated: “No authority that is stipulated in the law of the State of Israel or of the Jerusalem Municipality may be transferred either permanently or for an allotted period of time to a foreign body, whether political, governmental or to any other similar type of foreign body.”With no provision in the Basic Law specifying how it can be amended, it was possible to overturn it with a simple majority.The bill was originally proposed in the summer but did not make it through the procedural before the fall recess.“The goal of the bill is to prevent concessions as part of diplomatic deals,” said Moalem-Refaeli at the time. “Jerusalem will never be on the negotiating table.“The State of Israel will not allow for the establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem. Get it into your heads that Jerusalem was the capital of the Jewish people and will remain the capital of the Jewish people for all eternity,” she said.Jerusalem has been in the spotlight in recent weeks since US President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and said he would move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.In an address from the White House earlier this month, Trump defied worldwide warnings and insisted that after repeated failures to achieve peace a new approach was long overdue, describing his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the seat of Israel’s government as merely based on reality.The move was hailed by Prime Minister Netanyahu and by leaders across much of the Israeli political spectrum. Trump stressed that he was not specifying the boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in the city, and called for no change in the status quo at the city’s holy sites.The move sparked protests across the Arab and Muslim world and violent protests by the Palestinians, including a cal for a new intifada from the Hamas terror group.Opposition lawmaker Nahman Shai (Zionist Union) criticized the new law, saying it could spark further unrest.“We don’t need new laws on Jerusalem now, we have already seen what happens on the Temple Mount,” he said referring to widespread violence that erupted when Israel tried to impose new security procedures in the holy site after Israeli Arabs emerged from the Temple Mount compound and shot dead two Israeli policemen last summer.“When Jerusalem burns, everything burns,” Shai said.In May, hours before Trump arrived in Israel during his first major foray abroad as president, Netanyahu declared that Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem’s holy sites was not up for negotiation and said the city will always be Israel’s capital.Trump has expressed his desire to reach a Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement, which he has described as the “ultimate deal.”In recent months the United Nations cultural body UNESCO has passed a series of resolutions that diminish or deny the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and refer to Israel as an occupying power.Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1980, but the move has not been recognized internationally and most countries refuse to recognize any part of the city as Israel’s capital, saying it was an issue that will need to be decided in negotiations with the Palestinians.
2,700-year-old seal impression cements existence of biblical Jerusalem governor-Found in ongoing Western Wall plaza excavations, the minuscule clay piece is inscribed in ancient Hebrew script, 'Belonging to the governor of the city'-By Amanda Borschel-Dan-TOI-2 January 2018
Past and present collided last week when an extremely rare seal impression discovered in Jerusalem’s Western Wall plaza and bearing the inscription “Belonging to the governor of the city” was presented to Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat.According to site excavator Dr. Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah, “This is the first time that such an impression was found in an authorized excavation. It supports the biblical rendering of the existence of a governor of the city in Jerusalem 2,700 years ago.”At the presentation, Barkat said, “It is very overwhelming to receive greetings from First Temple-period Jerusalem. This shows that already 2,700 years ago, Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, was a strong and central city.”The minuscule clay seal impression, or docket, was found while researchers were examining the dust from a First Temple structure 100 meters northwest of the Western Wall at a site the Israel Antiquity Authorities has been excavating since 2005. The excavations have offered up insights into Jerusalem’s Second Temple and Roman periods, as well as a massive Iron Age four-room building where an eclectic collection of six other seals were uncovered, whose origins point to a thriving cosmopolitan Iron Age center or settlement.“The seal impression had been attached to an important transport and served as some sort of logo, or as a tiny souvenir, which was sent on behalf of the governor of the city,” said Weksler-Bdolah in an IAA release.The site, which faces the Western Wall plaza, was once earmarked as the future home of a Western Wall Heritage Foundation’s Beit HaLiba until Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspended the controversial museum “over security concerns” in 2015. However, in light of the “outstanding significance” of the finds at the excavation site, according to Dr. Yuval Baruch, archaeologist of the Jerusalem District in the IAA, a decision was made”to conserve the First Temple-period building exposed in the Western Wall plaza excavations and open it to visitors.”The clay impression was discovered in dust after Israel Antiquity Authority conservationists scratched at the surface of the First Temple period building’s walls to inject preservation materials. The dust that fell from between the ancient stones was taken to the IAA labs for wet sifting.At the IAA labs in Jerusalem’s Har Hotzvim technology park, Shimon Cohen spotted the seal impression about a year ago. The small (13 x 15 mm and 2–3 mm thick) fired lump of clay bears an image and inscription. On the upper portion of the impression, two figures wearing striped garments face each other. Between them is what could be a moon, according to excavation head Weksler-Bdolah.Over the past year, the impression was studied by Hebrew University Prof. Tallay Ornan and Tel Aviv University Prof. Benjamin Sass. According to their analysis, “above a double line are two standing men, facing each other in a mirror-like manner. Their heads are depicted as large dots, lacking any details. The hands facing outward are dropped down, and the hands facing inward are raised. Each of the figures is wearing a striped, knee-length garment.”The bottom section reads, in early Hebrew script: “Belonging to the governor [sar] of the city.” Weksler-Bdolah explains that the governor most likely functioned much like today’s mayor. The role is referenced in the Hebrew Bible: in 2 Kings, Joshua is listed as the governor of the city in the days of Hezekiah, and in 2 Chronicles, Maaseiah is noted as governor of the city in the days of Josiah.“The Bible mentions two governors of Jerusalem, and this finding thus reveals that such a position was actually held by someone in the city some 2700 years ago, said Weksler-Bdolah.The initial discovery of the First Temple structure came as a surprise to Weksler-Bdolah, who until then had been digging up Second Temple and Roman-era finds. However, as the team excavated more north, after a longstanding police building was removed, “All of a sudden we saw that there was no more bedrock. It disappeared.” In a 2010 interview, she described continuing the excavation and discovering that “the minute we took away the Early Islamic eighth-century plaster installations [from under the police building]… immediately, in 20 centimeters — ‘one basket of dirt’ archaeologically speaking — we went from the eighth-century A.D. to the eighth century B.C.”Her team discovered a four-room structure facing the Temple Mount, constructed on the slopes of the upper hill, which according to the remains of the building and its floors, was dated to the seventh century BCE.According to the 2010 article, the structure, which was ruined in a collapse, is “typical of the buildings of the Israelites and also in Judea. There was one broad room and three elongated rooms perpendicular to it. The one broad room is divided with walls into three sections, three smaller room.”Weksler-Bdolah believes that due to its location and the eclectic group of artifacts found there — from Egypt and Assyria — the building “probably served as an administration center. The people who gave orders may have had to sign documents here. It may also have been a place for the rich, the more important people, because the location is really important.”The recent additional find is more evidence for this hypothesis. “The finding of the impression with this high-rank title, in addition to the large assemblage of actual seals found in the building in the past, supports the assumption that this area, located on the western slopes of the western hill of ancient Jerusalem, some 100 meters west of the Temple Mount, was inhabited by highly ranked officials during the First Temple period,” said Weksler-Bdolah this week.The seal impression was presented to Mayor Barkat during a visit to Davidson’s Center, near the Western Wall, last week. After the completion of the scientific research, the impression will be on temporary exhibit in the mayor’s office.“Jerusalem is one of the most ancient capitals of the world, continually populated by the Jewish people for more than 3,000 years. Today we have the privilege to encounter another one of the long chain of persons and leaders that built and developed the city. We are grateful to be living in a city with such a magnificent past, and are obligated to ensure its strength for generations to come, as we daily do,” said Barkat.
You taught me how to love,’ tearful MK Yehudah Glick says at wife’s funeral-Yaffa Glick dies six months after suffering severe stroke, is buried in Jerusalem, survived by husband and 8 children-By TOI staff -2 January 2018
At the funeral for his wife Yaffa, Likud MK Yehudah Glick eulogized her, saying that she had “taught him how to love.”Yaffa Glick, who died on Monday, had been in a coma for six months after suffering a severe stroke. She was 51.“Everything I have is yours,” the lawmaker said through his tears during the afternoon ceremony at Jerusalem’s Har Hamenuhot cemetery.He said that she had taught him to be sincere when he said “thank you,” by thinking about what he was grateful for. “You taught me not to say ‘how are you’ without actually caring about the person,” he said. She had also “taught him how to love,” Glick said.“It was not by chance that all the ‘invisible’ people were attracted to you,” he continued. “We would go to a wedding, suddenly you would disappear and I would eventually find you sitting with someone on the side. I would say, ‘Do you know her?’ ‘No, but I saw she was alone, and that something weighed heavily on her, so I came over to speak with her.'”He spoke of the sense of gratitude the two of them had, which led them to adopt two children in addition to their own six.Yaffa Glick suffered a severe stroke on June 23, shortly before Shabbat began. “On Friday when the stroke happened everyone knew straight away because they didn’t get their usual WhatsApp ‘Shabbat Shalom’ from you,” Glick said in his eulogy.He thanked all those who attended the funeral, “from left and right, Jews and Arabs, from inside the party and outside the party.”Earlier, Glick announced his wife’s death on Facebook, sharing photos of “the love of my life.”Yehuda Glick was almost killed in a 2014 assassination attempt due to his advocacy for Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount site. His wife had been hospitalized in the same ward where he was treated. After her stroke six months ago the lawmaker tweeted that following his shooting, “she asked for prayers for me. Now, after a severe stroke, she needs your prayers.” He also said that he had prayed for her recovery during a visit to the Temple Mount in August, despite a ban on Jewish worship at the holy site.The timing of Monday’s funeral caused a mini-crisis in the government, when the opposition joined the coalition Yisrael Beytenu party in refusing to have one lawmaker bow out of an upcoming vote on a bill to shutter mini-markets on Shabbat, saying they would not offset Glick’s absence even though such a move is a customary gesture of courtesy in such cases.Hours before his wife’s funeral, Glick took to Twitter to implore lawmakers not to turn his bereavement into a political battle.“I beg of you,” he wrote, “that my dear wife’s funeral should not become the subject of a fight. Please increase love and positive energy.”The death of Yaffa Glick was met with an outpouring of condolences from across the political spectrum.“My condolences to MK Yehudah Glick on the death of his wife, Yaffa,” tweeted President Reuven Rivlin. “Together with all of the people of Israel, I followed her sad story and was impressed by the family’s devotion.”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a statement, said he had spoken with Glick to convey his condolences.“Together with all of Israel, we mourn her death and send strength to him and his family in their time of deep sorrow,” he said.Likud MK Amir Ohana, who served as a volunteer bodyguard for Glick in the hospital during his recovery (and before both had entered Knesset) also paid tribute to Yaffa Glick.“I got to know her during the difficult times, after the failed assassination attempt against Yehudah,” wrote Ohana on Twitter. “‘A soul woven with threads of steel and silk,’ Jabotinsky wrote of women, a description tailor-made for Yaffi.”
National task force unveiled to deal with drone dangers-With rise in incidents involving remote-controlled aircraft, better coordination needed between ministries and security agencies, MKs hear-By Sue Surkes-TOI-2 January 2018
A national task force slated to deal with safety and security issues connected to drones was unveiled Monday at a meeting of the Knesset’s State Control Committee. The new body, which will have its own dedicated budget, will be led by the air force, the committee heard.It has been given six months to determine operating procedures, after which it will report back to the committee on whether or not to push for drone regulation.Committee chair MK Shelly Yachimovich (Zionist Union), however, said the timescale was “totally unreasonable,” given the imminent threat of a disaster involving a drone.“It’s totally unreasonable in my opinion that after two and a half years of work by the National Security Council, we’re now told that that in another six months a decision will be made whether to regulate or not,” she said.“Have you taken into account that an attack is likely to happen during that period? Why are you so slow? Hitting out at what she called the “formalistic answers” it has received, she said the committee would revisit the issue in less than six months.Yesh Atid lawmaker Haim Jelin said the threat from drones was equivalent to that posed by the cross-border attack tunnels dug by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.The committee debate, some of which was held behind closed doors for security reasons, followed the publication in November of a scathing report by the state comptroller, which accused both security forces and regulators of failing to confront the threats posed to public safety by drones, some 20,000 of which are already owned by Israelis for a variety of purposes.Brig. Gen. Yossi Beinhoren (res.), director of the security services’ control division, told the committee that as recently as December 13, Ben Gurion International Airport had to shut down for 15 minutes because a drone had entered its flight space. In May, a drone entered the landing area at the Sde Dov airport in Tel Aviv, endangering a plane, and in January 2016, a helicopter passed just 50 meters away from a drone on the Herzliya beach in central Israel.While just one incident of danger to safety from a drone was recorded in 2014, there were 24 in 2016. Figures for 2017 had not yet been released.Eytan Ben-David, deputy head of the National Security Council, the main coordinating body for the various security organizations, said that two and a half years of work had yielded a “common language” between all those involved and a clear division of responsibility between the army and the police.Brig Gen. Eden Atias, director general of Parazero, a company dealing in drone safety, said Israel should follow the American lead in having drones registered at the point of purchase and equipped with technological components that would allow for them to be identified in the air. The Pentagon recently launched a $700 million program to deal with the threat from UAVs, the committee heard from another drone businessman, Guy Charney, of Atlas Dynamics.The state comptroller’s report said that while the Israel Defense Forces was responsible for countering drones flown by terrorist groups, it was not clear which security service was responsible for drones flown by Israelis within Israel.The army saw it as the police’s domain, as it was a civilian matter, while the police saw it as the army’s, since it was responsible for securing the country’s airspace, it said.The report also said that because drones flown for noncommercial purposes were not required to register, there was no information on some 98.6 percent of the drones estimated to be in Israeli hands.
Trump threatens to cut Pakistan aid over ‘deceit’ in terror fight-In first tweet of the New Year, US president says Islamabad provides 'safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan'-By AFP-TOI-JAN 2,18
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump lashed out at Pakistan on Monday in his first tweet of 2018, threatening to cut off aid over what he said were its “lies and deceit” in offering “safe haven to terrorists.”The tweet brought a quick and pointed rejoinder from Pakistan, which said it had done much for the United States, helping it to “decimate” Al-Qaeda, while getting only “invective & mistrust” in return.US-Pakistani ties, long contentious, have taken a nosedive under Trump, who in August declared that “Pakistan often gives safe haven to agents of chaos, violence and terror.”“The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools,” Trump said in an early-morning tweet.“They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!”The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2018-The Trump administration told Congress in August it was weighing whether to withhold $255 million in earmarked aid to Islamabad over its failure to crack down more effectively on terror groups in Pakistan.-Haqqani network-Last month, Trump hinted that he could cut off the aid.“We make massive payments every year to Pakistan. They have to help,” he said in unveiling his national security strategy.And in late December, Vice President Mike Pence told American troops during a visit to Afghanistan, “President Trump has put Pakistan on notice.”Of foremost concern is Islamabad’s attitude toward the powerful Haqqani network, accused of some of the most lethal attacks on US forces in Afghanistan and dubbed by America’s former top military officer Mike Mullen as a “veritable arm” of Pakistani intelligence.The group was responsible for kidnapping a Canadian-American couple and holding them from 2012 to 2017, when Pakistani forces secured their release in what they said was as a rescue operation but some US officials reportedly described as a “negotiated handover.”Trump hailed their return as a clear sign of progress, but his attitude has since hardened.Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif responded angrily to Trump’s tweet, telling Geo television in an Urdu-language interview: “The United States should hold its own people accountable for its failures in Afghanistan.”He said all funds from the US had been “properly audited” and that “services (were) rendered.”And Defense Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan tweeted that Pakistan “as anti-terror ally has given free to US: land & air communication, military bases & intel cooperation that decimated Al-Qaeda over last 16yrs, but they have given us nothing but invective & mistrust.”-Agents of chaos-Islamabad has repeatedly denied the accusations of turning a blind eye to militancy, lambasting the United States for ignoring the thousands who have been killed on its soil and the billions spent fighting extremists.Lisa Curtis, who is the director for South and Central Asia on Trump’s National Security Council, co-authored an article with former Pakistani ambassador Husain Haqqani last year which said that the “activities and operations of diverse terror groups on and from Pakistani soil, and the government’s failure to rein them in, threaten vital US national security interests in the region.”They added that “Pakistani authorities –- specifically the country’s military leaders, who control its foreign and security policies –- need to take a comprehensive approach to shutting down all Islamist militant groups that operate from Pakistani territory, not just those that attack the Pakistani state.”Trump first signaled that the US was reassessing its fractious relations with Pakistan in August, when he accused Islamabad of harboring “agents of chaos.”The remarks triggered a series of high-level diplomatic meetings in the US and Pakistan, but Islamabad has given few signs of concessions.After the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States, Washington forged a strategic alliance with Islamabad to help in its fight against extremists.But US leaders have often complained that Pakistan, which once supported the Taliban, has done too little to help.
Tunisian activists damage Holocaust display, calling it Zionist ‘propaganda’-Demonstrators tear down posters for National Library exhibition, saying the real genocide is happening to Palestinians-By TOI staff-2 January 2018
A Holocaust exhibition at the National Library in Tunis met with fierce opposition, with demonstrators tearing down posters and condemning what they called “propaganda” for the “decades-old myth about a genocide of the Jewish people.”In a video published by Meem Magazine on December 15, shortly after US President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, activists could be seen slamming the attempt to educate their “little children to get to know the history of the Jews,” according to a translation of the video published Monday by the Middle East Media Research Institute.The exhibition, which was supported by the Holocaust Museum in Washington, UNESCO, the United Nations and the German Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, was the initiative of Tunisian historian Habib Kazdaghli.“This is a historical documentary exhibition which exposes and denounces Nazi propaganda,” he said. “The purpose of this exhibition is to make our children love [history]. I’m a historian, but my children don’t like history.”The video showed dozens of people chanting, “Free, free Palestine. Out with the Zionists.” They then went on to remove posters about the exhibition.Hamida Bessaad, a researcher at the National Library, explained that the protesters opposed the exhibition because Kazdaghli “Wants our little children to get to know the history of the Jews, and learn about the Holocaust.”She claimed that the Holocaust was Jewish propaganda, and it was the Palestinians who were truly suffering a Holocaust.“He is upset that Tunisian children don’t know about the Holocaust of the Jews, but he is not upset that the children of Palestinian have been going through a Holocaust since 1948 and to this day,” she said. “The employees, intellectuals, readers and researchers of the National Library are all opposed to normalization (of relations with Israel) and to propaganda for the Jews.”Kawthar Chebbi, a civil society activist, called the Holocaust “lies and myths.”“Our youth are being brainwashed with empty lies and myths,” she said. “This decades-old myth about a genocide of the Jewish people by the Nazi regime… This is a lie to promote the Zionist entity and the “Israeli state.”Omar Al-Majri, a political activist, said, “The Holocaust was perpetrated by the Zionist movement in collaboration with the Nazis in order to transfer the Jews to Palestine. This is a historical truth that Habib Kazdaghli likes to ignore.”Tunisia was one of three north African countries that were part of Vichy France, where Nazis imposed anti-Jewish legislation. The Germans occupied Tunisia for six months, from November, 1942 through May, 1943. Thousands of the country’s 10,000 Jews were rounded up and sent to forced labor camps, where 265 of them died. Allied forces captured Tunisia on May 6, 1943, preventing mass deportations of the nations Jews to concentration camps in Europe.
Don't extinguish migrants' hopes, Pope says on World Day of Peace-[Reuters]-YAHOONEWS-January 2, 2018
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis described migrants and refugees as the world's "weakest and most needy" on Monday, using his traditional New Year's address to "give voice" to people he has urged leaders to do more to help.Francis reminded some 40,000 people who gathered in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican that he had chosen the plight of migrants and refugees as the theme for the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Peace, which is celebrated every January 1."For this peace, to which everyone has a right, many of them are willing to risk their lives in a journey which is often long and dangerous, they are willing to face strain and suffering.""Please, let us not extinguish the hope in their hearts, let us not suffocate their hopes for peace!"Across the world, the mass movement of people has shot to the top of the political agenda, and Francis has made defending those who migrate a central theme of his papacy.During a trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh last year, he met Muslim refugees and called for decisive measures to solve the political problems that caused many to flee.He has also criticized President Donald Trump's stated intention to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico to keep out illegal immigrants.In a homily earlier on Monday, Francis said everyone should look after their soul by taking a moment of silence every day, "to keep our freedom from being corroded by the banality of consumerism, the blare of commercials, the stream of empty words and the overpowering waves of empty chatter and loud shouting".In a message released in November ahead of the World Day of Peace, Francis said politicians who stoke fear of migrants were sowing violence and racism. He acknowledged that the presence of immigrants can compound existing problems in a country, but appealed for practical ways to be found to welcome newcomers.On Monday, he said: "It is important that there is a commitment from everyone, from civil institutions, and those in education, welfare and church organizations, to ensure a peaceful future for refugees, migrants, everyone."(Reporting by Isla Binnie; editing by Jason Neely)
STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES
LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun,(HEATING UP-SOLAR ECLIPSES) and in the moon,(MAN ON MOON-LUNAR ECLIPSES) and in the stars;(ASTEROIDS ETC) and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear,(TORNADOES,HURRICANES,STORMS) and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth:(DESTRUCTION) for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.(FROM QUAKES,NUKES ETC)
Record-shattering cold reaches into Florida-[Reuters]-By Ian Simpson-YAHOONEWS-January 2, 2018
(Reuters) - Record-shattering arctic cold reached as far south as Florida on Monday with freeze warnings in place from Texas to the Atlantic Coast and the northeastern United States facing another cold wave at the end of the week, forecasters said.Temperatures were from 20 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (11 to 17 degrees Celsius) below normal across the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, with only southern Florida untouched by the arctic blast."That degree of cold will be with us until tomorrow," said Brian Hurley, a National Weather Service meteorologist at College Park, Maryland. "Tuesday morning, we're looking at temperatures with very high probability of record lows."Along Alabama's Gulf Coast, the temperature in the city of Mobile could hit a low of 16F (minus 9C) overnight. Stiff breezes were expected to create dangerously cold wind chills across southeastern Georgia and most of northeastern Florida, the weather service said."Everybody's bundling up right now," said Ray, an employee at Love's Travel Stop in Loxley, Alabama, who declined to give his last name.He said the winter temperatures were not unusual but the truck stop had prepared for the cold by putting additive in fuel to guarantee it would flow freely.The mass of frigid air pumped south by a dip in the jet stream sent temperatures plunging across the U.S. heartland. Omaha posted a low of minus 20F (minus 29C), breaking a 130-year-old record, and Aberdeen, South Dakota, shattered a record set in 1919 with a temperature of minus 32F (minus 36C).The cold will be unrelenting across the Middle Atlantic and northeastern United States, with up to two dozen low temperature records expected in those regions over the next day or two, Hurley said.Although the cold should ease across most of the United States after Tuesday, the northeastern quarter of the country will see a repeat of the current frigid temperatures from Thursday to Friday as another arctic blast hits the area.The private AccuWeather forecaster said the cold snap could combine with a storm brewing off the Bahamas to bring snow and high winds to much of the Eastern Seaboard as it heads north on Wednesday and Thursday.The only part of the United States spared the deep freeze is the Southwest, with above-normal temperatures and dry weather expected to continue there, the weather service said.(Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
North Korea's Kim 'open to dialogue' with South Korea, will only use nukes if threatened-[Reuters]-By Heekyong Yang and Josh Smith-YAHOONEWS-January 2, 2018
SEOUL (Reuters) - Kim Jong Un warned the United States on Monday he had a "nuclear button" on his desk ready for use if North Korea was threatened, but offered an olive branch to South Korea, saying he was "open to dialogue" with Seoul.After a year dominated by fiery rhetoric and escalating tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program, the North Korean leader used his televised New Year's Day speech to declare his country "a peace-loving and responsible nuclear power" and call for lower military tensions and improved ties with the South."When it comes to North-South relations, we should lower the military tensions on the Korean Peninsula to create a peaceful environment," Kim said. "Both the North and the South should make efforts."Kim said he would consider sending a delegation to the Winter Olympics Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in February."North Korea's participation in the Winter Games will be a good opportunity to showcase the national pride and we wish the Games will be a success. Officials from the two Koreas may urgently meet to discuss the possibility," Kim said.South Korea said it welcomed Kim's offer. But U.S.-based experts saw Kim's speech as a clear attempt to divide Seoul from its main ally, Washington, which has led an international campaign to pressure North Korea through sanctions to give up weapons programs aimed at developing nuclear missiles capable of hitting the United States."We have always stated our willingness to talk with North Korea anytime and anywhere if that would help restore inter-Korean relations and lead to peace on the Korean Peninsula," a spokesman for the South Korean presidency said.Lee Hee-beom, president of the Pyeongchang Organizing Committee, said it welcomed North Korean participation and would "discuss relevant matters with the South Korean government as well as the International Olympic Committee."South Korean President Moon Jae-in has said North Korea's participation would ensure the safety of the Olympics and proposed last month that Seoul and Washington postpone large military drills that the North denounces as a rehearsal for war until after the Games.Asked to comment on Kim's speech, U.S. President Donald Trump said: "We'll see, we'll see," as he walked into a New Year’s Eve celebration at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.-'POKES AT THE FISSURE'-The U.S. State Department did not respond to a requests for comment on Kim’s New Year’s address, but analysts said it was an attempt to weaken the U.S.-South Korean alliance."This speech pokes at the fissure that has lain below the surface in U.S.-South Korean relations, and seems designed to drive a wedge there," said Douglas Paal, a former senior U.S. diplomat who heads the Asia program at Washington’s Carnegie Endowment for International Peace."President Moon needs a successful Olympics and the U.S. drive to increase pressure fits poorly with the Southern agenda."Evans Revere, another former senior U.S. diplomat who took part in unofficial talks with North Korean officials last year, said Pyongyang would likely try to extract concessions as a “price” for Olympics participation."It’s hard to imagine Seoul falling for this," he said, adding that Seoul and Washington had so far stayed in synch in the pressure and isolation campaign.Revere said Kim’s speech contained the strongest defense yet of North Korea's status as a permanently nuclear-armed country."Implicit in Kim Jong Un’s speech is a willingness to engage with others, including the United States, on the basis of their acceptance of the 'reality' of North Korea’s permanent nuclear status. That’s not a basis on which the United States is prepared to engage," he said.Moon took office last May pledging to engage Pyongyang in dialogue. But North Korea snubbed his overtures, including an offer to hold inter-Korean military talks about ceasing hostile activities along the border, as it tested missiles at an unprecedented pace.Kim said that rather than encouraging U.S. measures that "threaten the security and peace of the Korean peninsula," Seoul should instead respond to overtures from the North, and "stop nuclear war exercises with foreign forces."-'REALITY, NOT A THREAT'-North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test in September in defiance of international sanctions, raising fears of a new conflict on the Korean peninsula.After North Korea tested its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in November, which it said was capable of delivering a warhead to anywhere in the United States, Kim declared his nuclear force complete.He continued that theme in his New Year's address, announcing that North Korea would focus in 2018 on "mass-producing nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles for operational deployment".That, Kim said, was "irreversible with any force", making it impossible for the United States to start a war against North Korea."The whole territory of the U.S. is within the range of our nuclear strike and a nuclear button is always on the desk of my office and this is just a reality, not a threat," he said, while emphasizing that the weapons would only be used if North Korea was threatened.Kim's customary New Year’s speech is closely watched for indications of the policy direction the unpredictable and reclusive leader is likely to pursue in the coming year.Daniel Russel, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia until last April and now at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said there was an argument to be made to encourage North Korea's Olympic participation but that it should not be taken too far."It’s perfectly legitimate to dial down some of the signaling and the rhetoric ... but not to load up their tray with concessions in advance. We should reward responsible behavior, but not try to bribe North Korea into behaving; that doesn’t work," he said.Nam Sung-wook, a North Korea expert at Korea University in Seoul said Kim was likely to tone down his weapons testing - at least ahead of the Olympics."What North Korea is most afraid of is being forgotten in the international arena," he said. "Without launching missiles and conducting a nuclear test, North Korea will be in the spotlight just by attending the Winter Olympics."Harry Kazianis, director of defense studies at Washington's conservative Center for the National Interest, said that if North Korea did participate in the Olympics, there could be a lull in tensions, but only a brief one."As we move into the spring, Pyongyang will once again test all different types of missiles and weapons," he said.(Additional reporting by Soyoung Kim in Seoul, David Brunnstrom and Yeganeh Torbati in Washington and Roberta Rampton in West Palm Beach, Fla; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Peter Cooney)
